JERUSALEM: Israel will build a 100 billion shekel ($27 billion) rail expansion that will connect its outlying areas to metropolitan Tel Aviv and, in the future, could provide overland links to Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Opening the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, Netanyahu appeared to sidestep the constitutional crisis that has roiled the country for seven months, denting its economy and shaking Western allies’ confidence in its democratic health.

Instead, he promoted infrastructure initiatives including the “One Israel Project”, which he described as designed to reduce travel time by train to the

country’s business and government centres to two hours or less. The plan is basically a revival of an idea promoted for years, though little progress has been made.

The government in 2010 approved a similar multi-billion shekel initiative for a nationwide network that did not gain traction.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2023